


Found beneath the black

by technorat



Series: roleswap au [2]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Canon-Typical Violence, Developing Relationship, Force-Sensitive Armitage Hux, General Kylo Ren, M/M, Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Pre-Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:20:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25069828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/technorat/pseuds/technorat
Summary: General Kylo Ren has brought Snoke's apprentice to the Supremacy, as commanded.Hux has treacherous plans.Or, a role-swap au in which Snoke dies earlier in The Last Jedi.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: roleswap au [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1311656
Comments: 10
Kudos: 65
Collections: Kylux Positivity Week 2.0





	Found beneath the black

**Author's Note:**

> Admittedly it's taken me much longer than I wanted to get back to this verse. I felt a little bit discouraged before. Someday, I'll go back and edit the first piece in this series. Kylux Positivity Week 2.0 has given me some inspiration so I hope it's enjoyable!
> 
> I think this fic is readable without having read the previous fic in the series. What you need to know going in is:  
> -Hux is Snoke's apprentice and Master of the Knights of Ren.  
> -Kylo Ren is the General of the First Order, the creator of the Starkiller.  
> -Both are Force-sensitive, but Kylo Ren thinks himself weak.  
> -After Starkiller, Kylo healed Hux.
> 
> Warnings: Snoke is both creepy and violent, minor character death

The Supremacy is the moving capital of the First Order, filled with academies and manufactories. The First Order valued self-sufficiency and efficiency. The First Order was strong, the Supremacy more valuable than countless worlds.

This is what General Ren tells himself.

The Finalizer and the rest of the First Order’s fleet are traveling to answer Snoke’s call. They have been traveling for several cycles, ever since Starkiller fell.

Ren felt the wounds that course across the Galaxy greatly—those worlds snuffed by Starkiller and the subsequent loss of Starkiller, the death of Han Solo, and then there was Hux.

Hux with his dark robes, overlarge for his lithe frame. Hux with his Sith-yellow eyes. Hux, who had been wounded. Hux, who Ren had healed.

(Even now the Light called to him, cloying and sweet.)

Ren turns.

Hux sands there on the bridge. He is more grey than pale, his lips chapped. He should not be here. Not when everyone else thinks he is recovering from grievous wounds. Not when Ren hates him.

(But they are co-commanders. Ren pushes away that thought.)

“I need to ask a favor of you,” says Hux.

“What would that be?” asks Ren.

Hux settles his gaze on one of Ren’s personal attendants. His fingers are far too close to the hilt of his lightsaber. “Might we discuss this in private?” he asks.

Observation: If Hux had snitched to Snoke about Ren’s forbidden use of the Force, Hux wouldn’t be so delicate. Hux would dispatch Ren in front of all of the officers and not bat an eye. He had to same to his own father.

Conclusion: Hux is not going to kill him this cycle

Further, Hux is gaunt and shaking in a way he had not been before. Even if he attempted to kill Ren, there is a fair chance of Ren’s survival.

“Follow me,” Ren says.

He brings them to an empty conference room, where Hux all but collapses in a tall-backed chair. Hux shifts and pulls out his lightsaber, setting it down on the table.

Years ago, when Hux had first been introduced to Ren, Ren had been jealous of Hux’s lightsaber. It is a sleek thing, reminiscent of sabres used during the golden age of the Jedi. Hux, then twenty-four, had sneered and turned it on. It burnt with hatred and hurt, screaming all the while.

(Ren’s own lightsaber is lost now in the ashes of Luke Skywalker’s Jedi temple. It was a clumsy thing, the creation of a child. He would be loathe to look at its exposed wiring now.)

“So. What’s the favor?” asks Ren.

Hux runs a gloved hand through his hair, fingers snagging on tangles. “I need you to make a Force-suppression collar,” he says.

Ren blinks slowly. Tilts his head. “Do you really think that would be wise?”

Hux barks out laughter, his teeth sharp. “We need to get rid of the Supreme Leader,” he says. He holds out his hand. “Will you join me?”

Ren stares at the offered hand. It’s shaking. He shuts his eyes, takes a breath.

“No,” says Ren.

Hux’s face twitches. He snarls like a rabid cur. At least he doesn’t bite this time. “Then I suppose I have no purpose here,” he says.

And, with that, he is gone.

*

When Kylo Ren was still known as Ben Organa-Solo, he had shown some rudimentary use of the Force early on. He heard other people’s stray thoughts and put them under suggestions he thought would be funny. He had laughed often and used the Force for petty mischief.

At Luke Skywalker’s Jedi temple, Ben quickly learned that he was not special. Worse, he was weak.

But he wanted power.

Desperately, he wanted power.

Snoke offered that to him—knowledge, his grandfather’s legacy, the Knights of Ren.

He had been Master of the Knights of Ren. Only for a little while.

Then came Hux, out from whatever hole he was hiding in. Hateful, spiteful, vengeful Hux.

The perfect catalyst for the Dark, said Snoke. A rabid beast with nothing in its heart but anger and pain.

But Kylo Ren could still be useful.

Kylo Ren looked into machines and saw how they worked.

Further, Kylo Ren looked at the First Order and saw it for what it is: one large, efficient machine.

If Kylo Ren could not cut ties from the Light, could not use the Force properly, then he would find other options.

*

There are no meetings.

Everything has been put on hold.

The First Order holds its breath.

When they arrive to the coordinates Snoke had sent, the Supremacy blots out the stars.

“Permission to dock granted, sir,” says Lieutenant Mitaka.

Ren nods. Even in his greatcoat, he is cold, a chill across his spine. The recycled air has never felt more like hands, fingers wrapped around his throat.

“General Ren,” a projection of Snoke’s head says. “Bring my apprentice to me at once.” The projection flickers off before Ren has the chance to say anything at all.

Ren shuts his eyes, swallows. His teeth ache when he clenches his jaw. He has likely cracked a few fillings.

When he turns, he nearly bowls over Hux.

Hux somehow looks worse, with his grey face and bruise-purple dark circles. His lips are bloodless. He is drowning in his robes, having apparently lost his belt since the last time Ren saw him. “Well then, Ren?” he says.

Ren brushes past him wordlessly, hoping that the wanna-be Sith doesn’t damn the both of them.

They are silent as specters, passing through the Supremacy’s halls. They have nothing to say to one another.

(Hux, lying down in the snow, like a broken doll.

Hux, ready to die.

Ren hadn’t let him. The weight of Hux’s memories come back to snap at his fingers. Bastard. Monster. Han Solo is dead.)

Well.

“You shouldn’t have killed him,” Ren says.

Hux takes a breath. “Did you put a claim on his head first?” he asks savagely.

Ren nearly pulls out his blaster right then and there. Hux could stop a blaster bolt most of the time, but Ren wanted to hurt him. To make him bleed and snarl.

But. That is likely what Hux wants.

“He was my father,” Ren says, so cold. “If anyone had the right to kill him, it would have been me.”

(Han Solo hadn’t been the best father. But. He was filled with love for his son. He tried.

Yet, he had not stopped Leia from sending Ben Organa-Solo away.)

“Sorry,” Hux says. It sounds disingenuous coming from him.

“You’re not. Don’t lie.”

Hux shrugs one shoulder. “I didn’t expect you to be attached to him.”

Ren doesn’t comment on this.

“He said… my mother is waiting. With the Resistance,” Hux says.

“I’m not your therapist,” says Ren. He seriously doubts that Hux would ever submit to that.

Hux sneers at him. “Hm, how’s anger management classes going for you? Not too well, if I remember the budgets correctly.”

They squabble. Like children. They always have.

But then they stand together, before Snoke’s throne.

Snoke waits for them, dressed all in cold. There is a smile on his face. “Welcome back,” he says.

And then the assault on their minds begins. Snoke is vicious, his nails tearing into Ren’s brain. Every cell, every neuron down to the myelin sheath. Not a single memory, not a single thought is hidden.

And so, Snoke sees of Hux’s treachery.

Snoke casts out his hand, lightning leaping across the glossy, star-filled floor. Hux’s body falls and twitches.

Hux stares up, golden eyes burning hatred. He bares his bloodied teeth.

He’s about dangerous as a loth cat right now.

Snoke stands on unsteady legs and goes before Ren. He pets the top of Ren’s head gently, like one would a pet a slightly more loved loth cat. Ren’s hair falls from its severe bun and Snoke threads his spindly fingers through the dark waves.

Ren does not look up where he is kneeling. He breathes, just breathes, and recites everything that he must still do this cycle.

“Do you miss it?” asks Snoke, voice lowering to a whisper. “Would you like to be the Master of the Knights of Ren again? You can take back the title. All you have to do is snuff out the cur.”

Ren is still. He hardly breathes.

_Hux. A child. Needles. The scent of bacta. The bombardment of Arkanis._

_Hux’s mother. Her hands running through his hair. “Shh. It’ll be alright.”_

Snoke laughs, raucous and loud. He turns away, approaching Hux’s prone form. He nudges Hux with a golden slipper. “Your mother was weak,” Snoke tells Hux. “That is why Brendol left her to die.”

Hux leaps to his feet, his lightsaber screeching. “Fuck you!” he yells and attempts to cut Snoke down.

Ren doesn’t have to look up to know that Hux’s assassination attempt won’t work.

The wet sound of Hux landing is something he could not predict. Ren winces in sympathy.

All of the Praetorian guards stiffen, pulling out their weapons.

“Would you like to join your mother beyond this life?” asks Snoke, almost kindly.

Hux is pinned to the floor, seething. He probably would curse more, if he had any breath left to him.

Ren winces from the pressure hanging in the air. 

Snoke summons Hux’s lightsaber to him and examines it fondly. He walks back to his throne slowly, almost like he enjoys making them wait. Snoke sets the lightsaber down on the arm of his throne. “Well then?” Snoke says. “Will you beg for your life?”

The Praetorian guards relax. Threat neutralized.

Ren looks up, eyes settling on the lightsaber.

He moves it, carefully, while Snoke is still speaking, still mocking Hux. And then, when it faces Snoke, Ren turns it on.

Snoke’s upper half hits the floor wetly. His bottom half remains firmly in his throne.

The Praetorian guards come to life then. Electricity courses through their weapons. They would avenge their master or they would die.

“Get up,” Ren barks at Hux, calling the lightsaber to him.

Hux sneers, blood dripping down his chin. “Was the Force-suppressing collar too neat and tidy for you?” he asks.

Ren sneers right back. “Fuck you,” he says, parroting Hux’s accent.

They fight like one being until the Praetorian guards are dead, smoke rising from their armor.

Hux breathes heavily. So does Ren. They look at one another.

Then Hux stumbles forwards, fisting his hands in Ren’s coat, probably wrinkling it beyond repair. “And why have I never seen that side of you before?” he asks, breath hot against Ren’s face.

Ren cups Hux’s cheek, thumb tracing over his bruised cheekbone. “I don’t know,” says Ren, so very intelligently.

The curtains are on fire. One falls from its hooks.

Snoke is dead.

The Supreme Leader is dead.

Ren knows what he must do. He knows how the First Order had stagnated beneath Snoke’s cruel hand. He knows now that the Resistance will fall and that the Galaxy will bow to the First Order.

The Galaxy will be saved.

Hux kisses him, all teeth. He digs his hands through Ren’s hair, clenching his fists. “Would you bow to me?” he asks.

“Never,” says Ren.

Hux smiles, gold eyes so warm. He bites Ren’s lip, until it bleeds. “Silly,” he says. “We’re co-commanders, aren’t we?”

“Mm.” Ren is cautious, avoiding Hux’s many injuries. “As co-Supreme Leader, I am permitting you to use bacta from now on.”

Hux laughs, a braying vicious sound. “Fuck you,” he says so softly, resting his cheek against Ren’s shoulder. It is almost a kind gesture. “As co-Supreme Leader, I dismiss your concerns and ask you to heal me yourself, coward.”

Ren’s hand fits the entire span of Hux’s back comfortably. “Acknowledged,” he says before he reaches for the Light.


End file.
